Sunday, 11 February 2007

Escaping the Rat Race

I ordered food from freshdirect.com on Thursday and it got here Friday morning.Ten years ago who would have thought that it was possible to shop from a room in your home with the click of a mouse!

I read widely and I like to share information, so I send colleagues and friends articles all the time.Now that I am home and have so much time on my hand, I have been emailing my colleagues everyday with different articles.Then there is the usual discussion that ensues between some of us on whatever topic the article is addressing.End result: a constant assault on their inboxes!

I am a very politicised person and I am very passionate about many issues.Unfortunately the constraints of my job mean that often time I have to be muted and keep my opinions to myself.Since joining the Ministry, I have used this avenue of emailing articles to colleagues and encouraging healthy discussions among ourselves as one way of dealing with this claustrophobia.However I still feel very restrained.I honestly believe I am more suited to academia but even then, these days academic freedom is under constant attack.

Recently, the idea of just removing myself from the rat race has become extremely appealing- moving to a farm in a remote area on some island and living a largely self-sufficient existence.I am sure Richard Hoad would love to hear about a young professional who decides that an easy life close to the earth is much more attractive.I don’t think I would do this in Bim though.It would have to be another Caribbean island- one of the OECS- or some other tropical place (need the sea) without all the so-called development that has happened in Barbados.A Barbados that is full of highways, traffic, flyovers, huge buildings, no glimpse of the sea as one drives along the coast, huge hotels, exclusive developments for wealthy foreigners, prime agricultural land turned into golf courses, inflated land prices that the average Barbadian cannot afford, people clamouring to live a materialistic lifestyle financed through credit, etc. appals me and I cannot really see myself being happy in such a place.